"F" is for Fiber

After reading Sugar Blues by William Duffy, I firmly believed that Twinkies were bad for you because they were loaded with sugar.  Then, after I started to get headaches from eating preservatives (with a 48 hour time lag—my husband figured that one out for me!), I said, "Of course!  Twinkies are loaded with preservatives!  The preservatives are what make them so bad for you!"  Seems like a no-brainer.  Then I thought, calories.  Too many calories.  I don't have enough room in my diet for those calories.  But I don't count calories any more...  

Next came the fake fat scare (Bans have begun in a lot of places here and abroad) and my husband said, "No more trans fat in the house!"  So, I decided, all that hydrogenated glop that passes undigested through your digestive track, possibly lodging in your arteries and giving you a heart attack, that's definitely the worst thing about Twinkies!  

Get this, I was wrong again!  But, I was close:

The clue was in something I heard a long time ago from a health food addict. This person called all junk food, "Fiberless fast food."  I didn't really understand the implications of that at the time, but, in retrospect, I believe they hit the nail on the head.

First of all, what is fiber?  It's anything bulky (think fruit, vegetables, nuts, grains, etc.) that helps push food through your digestive tract.  (Remember the last lesson on digestion and elimination?  How's that gonna happen if nothing is moving?  And how's it gonna move if it's like goo?  [Try the "Twinkie in the glass of water" experiment.]) 

 

So you see, I'm not pushing health food.  And I'm not pushing "diet" food (iceberg lettuce and celery, yuck!)  I'm pushing the, well, "pushing" foods.  I'm just saying, if you want to be healthy and lose weight, fiber is your friend. 

 

So, go ahead and eat that Twinkie if you really want to.  

Just make sure you roll it in sesame seeds first.